mask

mask,

cover or partial cover for the face or head used as a disguise or protection. Masks have been worn from time immemorial throughout the world. They are used by primitive peoples chiefly to impersonate supernatural beings or animals in religious and magical ceremonies. Particularly notable are the masks of W and central Africa; the wooden masks of the Native Americans of NW North America, which sometimes represented totemic animals; the False Face Society of the Iroquois, whose masked dancers were thought to ward off evil spirits; and the gold and turquoise-mosaic masks of Aztec warriors and priests. Masks have always been especially important in drama, and their use has been continued into modern times. They are an integral part of Japanese drama, especially of the No plays, and of Chinese temple dramas (see Asian dramaAsian drama,dramatic works produced in the East. Of the three major Asian dramas—Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese—the oldest is Sanskrit, although the dates of its origin are uncertain......Click the link for more information.). The many masks used in ancient Greek drama represented the character being portrayed by the actor and were constructed to portray a fixed emotion such as grief or rage. Greek masks had metallic mouthpieces that enhanced the resonance of an actor's voice. The use of masks was preserved in the Roman theater, passed into the early Italian theater, and was a characteristic device of the commedia dell'artecommedia dell'arte, popular form of comedy employing improvised dialogue and masked characters that flourished in Italy from the 16th to the 18th cent. Characters of the Commedia Dell'Arte.....Click the link for more information.. The mask was used in the miracle dramas of the Middle Ages and appeared in the 20th cent. in the works of the German expressionist playwrights and in Eugene O'Neill's plays The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed. The making of death masks (reproduction of the face of a dead person) is an ancient practice. Roman death masks were made of wax, and Egyptian death masks of thin gold plate. The modern method first applies oil or grease to the face and next a coat of plaster of paris, which is permitted to harden and is then removed. This procedure results in a mold that is used to cast the mask. Although a similar process was used for life masks, it often proved dangerous to the sitter and unsatisfactory in results. Protective masks include those used by medieval horsemen, gas masks, surgeon's masks, and masks used in certain athletic events. See African artAfrican art,art created by the peoples south of the Sahara.

The predominant art forms are masks and figures, which were generally used in religious ceremonies. The decorative arts, especially in textiles and in the ornamentation of everyday tools, were a vital art in.....Click the link for more information.; North American Native artNorth American Native art,diverse traditional arts of Native North Americans. In recent years Native American arts have become commodities collected and marketed by nonindigenous Americans and Europeans......Click the link for more information.; masquemasque,courtly form of dramatic spectacle, popular in England in the first half of the 17th cent. The masque developed from the early 16th-century disguising, or mummery, in which disguised guests bearing presents would break into a festival and then join with their hosts in a.....Click the link for more information..

Bibliography

See R. Sieber, Masks as Agents of Social Control (1962); J. Gregor, Masks of the World (1937, repr. 1968); A. Lommel, Masks (tr. 1972), W. Sorrell, The Other Face (1974).

Mask

A corbel, the shadow of which bears a close resemblance to that of a human face. It was a favorite ornament under the parapet of a chancel.

Mask

an adornment in the form of a human face or animal head. Masks are usually placed on keystones, door and window frames, fountains (with a hole through which the water can flow), furniture, and vessels.

Mask

(1) A special covering with an image (such as a human or animal face, or the head of a mythological being), worn over a person’s face. Masks are made from various materials. Masks were first used in the remote past; they were used in hunting and in ceremonies. Later, masks came to be used in various kinds of theatrical presentations—including classical drama, the Indonesian theater, and the Italian commedia dell’arte—as part of the actor’s makeup.

(2) A band of cloth or other material with openings cut out for the eyes and worn over the upper part of the face by participants in carnivals and masquerades.

(3) A cast made of plaster or other material, which bears the imprint of the face of a dead person; a death mask.

(4) In medicine, a device, or part of an apparatus, placed over the face of a patient for the administration of anesthesia by the inhalation of liquid or gaseous narcotic substances.

(5) In cosmetics, one of the means of healing or caring for facial skin.

What does it mean when you dream about a mask?

Wearing a mask in a dream can suggest presenting a false persona to others to protect against ridicule and shame.

mask

[mask]

(computer science)

A pattern of characters used to control the retention or elimination of portions of another pattern of characters. Also known as extractor.

(design engineering)

A frame used in front of a television picture tube to conceal the rounded edges of the screen.

(electronics)

A thin sheet of metal or other material containing an open pattern, used to shield selected portions of a semiconductor or other surface during a deposition process.

(engineering)

A protective covering for the face or head in the form of a wire screen, a metal shield, or a respirator.

(graphic arts)

In color separation photography, an intermediate negative or positive that is used to correct color.

In offset lithography, opaque material that protectively covers open or selected areas of a printing plate during the exposure process.

(metallurgy)

A protective device in thermal spraying against blasting or coating effects which are reflected from the substrate surface.

mascaron, mask

mascaron

The representation of a face, a human or partly human head, more or less caricatured, used as an architectural ornament.

mask

masque

1. a dramatic entertainment of the 16th to 17th centuries in England, consisting of pantomime, dancing, dialogue, and song, often performed at court

2. the words and music written for a masque

mask

(1) A pattern used to transfer a design onto an object. See photomask.

(2) A pattern of bits used to accept or reject bit patterns in another set of data. For example, the Boolean AND operation can be used to match a mask of 0s and 1s with a string of data bits. When a 1 occurs in both the mask and the data, the resulting bit will contain a 1 in that position.

Hardware interrupts are often enabled and disabled in this manner with each interrupt assigned a bit position in a mask register.

Masks

(dreams)

Masks may represent our persona and how we appear to others, the roles that we play in life such as parent, student, or worker. On the other hand, masks can be a symbol of pretentiousness. If you are wearing a mask, look inside and check if you are being sincere in your presentations, or if you are hiding something and pretending to be something you are not. If other people are wearing masks, it suggests that you may be concerned about their genuineness.

There were no actresses, the women's parts were taken by boys, and at first ladies when they came to look on wore masks so that they might not be known, as they were rather ashamed of being seen at a theater.

Strange as it seems in the author of these masterpieces of frank realism, Jonson at the same time was showing himself the most gifted writer of the Court masks, which now, arrived at the last period of their evolution, were reaching the extreme of spectacular elaborateness.

While Jones and his mask were walking together about the room, to rid themselves of the teazer, he observed his lady speak to several masks, with the same freedom of acquaintance as if they had been barefaced.

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